This is a rather simple mod that makes some balance changes to mDiyo's great mod Tinker's Construct. Obviously balance is a relative term and is rather subjective.

I felt it was too easy to progress through material tiers (wood>stone>iron) and this mod is mostly about making that harder. You may struggle in the beginning and that's how I like it. See the guide and features sections for more details.

This mod is designed for me and represents my personal preferences. That said, I am happy to hear your ideas and comments. If I use an idea you suggest, I will credit you.

Tools and weapons gain xp as you use them and "level up"
Weapons gain XP when hitting mobs (amount based on damage, reduced for animals)
Bows gain XP when it's arrows hit mobs (amount based on damage, reduced for animals)
Bows also gain a small amount of XP from melee attacks
Tools gain XP for breaking blocks they are made to break (wood for axes, stone for picks, etc)
Tools start with no base modifiers and no way to add them (unless it has paper/thaumium parts)
Levels 1, 3 and 5 give an extra modifier
Every level gives a random improvement
Modular system, you can enable/disable parts or the whole thing

Ability to swap parts of existing tools>> The tool must be fully repaired to change parts <<
Never throw tools away again, always upgrade the parts to save your XP and levels
Can be done in the tool station, tool forge or normal crafting window
Maximum two parts can be swapped at one time

Alternative crafting options for many Tinker's Construct crafting mechanics
Tools can be built, repaired and upgraded using the normal crafting window
Parts can be made with a wood pattern and material (non-metal only)
Patterns can be crafted on their own to change the pattern
Blank patterns can be crafted with 4 sticks in a square
Each of the above features can be disabled in the config

Restrictions on the parts you can make with certain materials
WOOD: Only rod, binding, shovel head, knife blade, arrow head
STONE: No restrictions but parts can only be used to make metal casts
FLINT: Only pickaxe head, axe head, shovel head, knife blade, chisel, arrow head
BONE: Only rod, axe head, shovel head, knife blade, arrow head
SLIME / PAPER / CACTUS: Only binding and tool rod
* Stone tools cannot be made. Again, those parts are only for casts.
Ability to make stone tools can be re-enabled in the config
Can restrict/unrestrict parts in the config

Pickaxe boost required mode
Pickaxes will only be able to mine up to the same material level as it's pickaxe head part
For example an pickaxe with an copper pickaxe head can only mine up to copper ore
To mine the next tier, you will need to boost the pick with a mob head or XP
The "Boost XP" tooltip shows how close you are to boosting with XP
Adding a mob head is a simple as attaching it to the tool as a modifier
Each head has a limit to the tier of material it can boost
Skeleton/Zombie: Copper picks or lower
Creeper: Iron picks or lower
Enderman: Bronze picks or lower
Wither skeleton: Obsidian picks or lower
To mine Cobalt you will need to modify an Ardite pick with a nether star
When you upgrade your pick head the mob head modifiers will be removed
On by default but can be disabled in the config

Recipes for vanilla tools removed
Depends on what tinker's parts are disabled
For example, if you cannot make a wooden axe head and rod you cannot make a vanilla wood axe
Disabled tools are also removed from bonus chest generation

New item: Clay Bucket
Made with the normal bucket pattern, except with clay instead of iron
Needs to be fired (cooked) in a furnace
If used to carry lava, it will be destroyed when the lava is placed

Gravel no longer randomly drops flint
Flint is now crafted using 4 gravel

Added tooltips to wood patterns
Tells you which materials can be used to make that part

Added tooltips to parts
Shows various info (mining speed, durability, and so on) about the part
Info will only be shown if it will affect a tool made with that part

Config option to limit the number of times you can repair a tool
Inactive by default but the option is available in the config

Config option to scale how much a tool is repaired based on number of previous repairs
Inactive by default but the option is available in the config
The more you repair a tool the more material you will need to repair it

Config option to modify the repair speed of moss
Inactive by default but the option is available in the config
I recommend setting this to "1" if you use the repair restriction option above

Config options to modify the harvest speed and durability of all materials
You can set a percentage for each (example, make all materials have 50% harvest speed)

Config options to set the required harvest level of any block
See config for instructions

Tool tips on mob heads used for "Heads required mode"
Shows the max tool material the head can be used to boost
Only show if "Heads required mode" is active

New heads: Enderman, Blaze and Zombie Pigman
Only drop if "Heads required mode" is active
The rendering on the zombie pigman head is a little strange

Mobs drop heads on death
Heads have been added as a drop from the above mobs
The default rate is 5% (1 in 20) but this can be configured
Head drops added by other mods are removed

Cleaver and beheading modifier effect reduced
By default cleavers two levels of beheading (not shown)
Each level of beheading add 2% to the drop chance
Can be configured in the config file

Adding extra modifiers in "Heads required mode"
The following change only apply when "Heads required mode" is active
An extra modifier can only be added by modifying a tool with a blaze and zombie pigman head

Electric modifier now takes 2 modifier slots
Because it was overpowered imo, I may change this in future

Ability to reform non-metal parts in the part builder
Example: Turn a stone binding into a stone tool rod

New command - /leveluptool
Levels up the tool you are currently holding, unless it is at max already

New command - /toolxp
Sets the xp of the tool you are holding to the value you choose

STARTING GUIDE

Starting off
The first thing you will notice is that the only tools you can make with wood are shovels, bows and battlesigns. You will need to hunt down some bone or flint to make pickaxe and axe heads. Bone and flint tools have been nerfed somewhat and are on a par with vanilla stone tools, only with slightly less durability. Wood as a material has also been nerfed dramatically.

Getting flint
To make getting flint from gravel less tedious, you can put 4 pieces of gravel next to each other in the crafting grid to get one flint. Gravel blocks no longer drop flint randomly. When digging gravel you will always get back gravel.

Making weapons
Until you smelt copper, you will not be able to make a sword. Don't panic as you can still make a flint axe and a bow to defend yourself. Once you have dug out some copper and aluminum with your flint tools and have access to a smeltery, you can upgrade your tool set and make your first sword.

Getting lava for the smeltery
You will need to craft a clay bucket (3 clay in the usual pattern) and fire (cook) it in a furnace to bring lava to the smeltery. When used to carry lava, the clay bucket is one use only and will be destroyed upon placing the lava.

A note on stone parts and tools
Stone can still be used to make all parts but those parts cannot be used to make tools. However, you will need them to pour aluminum brass over, to make the casts needed to mould metal parts. If you don't understand how to do this, refer to a Tinker's Construct guide on making metal tools - the process has not changed.

Changing parts of existing tools
Gone are the old days of making new tools with each new material and throwing away the old one. You can now change the parts of existing tools using the tool station or tool forge like you would add an upgrade (see screenshots for an example). You should do this every time because doing so, you will not lose any modifiers, xp or levels the tool has gained so far.

Leveling tools
Tinker's construct tools now gain xp either hitting mobs or breaking blocks. The tool's current XP and chance to level up will be shown on it's tooltip (see screenshots for an example). Leveling up a tools gives benefits such as opening up new modifier slots, as well as giving random bonuses.

Leveling pickaxes
When you make your first copper pickaxe, you will notice that you cannot mine anything new with it. From this tier onwards picks can only mine upto the level of the material they are made of. In order to mine the next tier of material you will either need to harness the power of a mob head or boost the pickaxe with XP (shown as "Boost XP" in the tooltip).

Using a mob head
An alterative to leveling up your pickaxe is to use the power of a mob head to boost it's mining capability. Copper pickaxes need a skeleton or zombie head, so go kill a few mobs and get hold of one. The default chance for a head to drop is 5%, so on average you should get one every 20 mobs killed. Add the head as a modifier to the pickaxe and the mining level will be boosted (see screenshots for an example). You do not need a free modifier slot to add a mob head.

*** The features described in the above few paragraphs can be disabled in the config if you do not like them. Disabling pickaxeBoostRequired means that tools will be able to mine the next tier material as soon as they are made ***

The iron age
Once boosted, copper pickaxes can mine iron. Since you can now defend yourself propely you should be able to go deeper into the caves and find some iron, and upgrade your tool set once more. You will need to modifiy your iron pick with a creeper head or gain enough boost XP for it to gain a mining boost. Once you have done this you can mine tin and gold.

The bronze age
Back at your smeltery, three copper combined with one tin in the smeltery will mix to give you a bronze alloy. You will need a enderman head or more boost XP to access the potential of your bronze pick. With a bronze pickaxe, you can mine obsidian and diamonds for the first time. The next tool set you will want to make will either be obsidian or alumite (check the Tinker's Construct book in game for the alloy mix).

Into the Nether
Alumite and obsidian requires a wither skeleton skull modifier, after which you can mine the first nether metal - Ardite. Ardite tools - which require a nether star (or more boost XP) to boost mining level - are needed to mine the other nether ore, cobalt. Finally Ardite and Cobalt can be combined to make the top tier tool material - Manyullyn.

SCREENSHOTS

An example of a leveled up tool's tooltip

What happens when you level up

Changing parts of existing tools

Adding a mob head modifier (can be done in tool station/forge or in normal crafting window)

All my mods are open source and can be used in any mod pack without asking me.
I would appreciate it if you let me know the name of the pack, but you don't have to.
You can use my source code in any way you see fit, use in your own mods if you like.

CREDITS / THANKSmDiyo for making his great mod and helping me understand the APIClaudiaJ for providing useful info on GregTechVentenah for making the Soartex textures

A big thank you to Materialize127 and VoxKnight for helping me with testing, as well as providing ideas. I recommend checking out Materialize127's Twitch channel. He mostly plays Magic Farm, UHS and Unleashed - as well as a pack of his own making.http://www.twitch.tv/Materialize127

Another shout out to Oharaicaine, who helped me test the new leveling system in 1f. He plays a hardcore pack of such terrifying difficulty he has trouble beating it himself. Go watch him finding new ways to fail at;http://www.twitch.tv/oharaicaine

Finally CallMeHal was the one who came up with the tool leveling idea, so please send him a thanks if you like it.

could you add a config option for the no slime netherack paper and cactus parts because paper is somewhat essential for the written modofier and slime would be useless otherwise. also cactus has abilities that are both good and bad.

could you add a config option for the no slime netherack paper and cactus parts because paper is somewhat essential for the written modofier and slime would be useless otherwise. also cactus has abilities that are both good and bad.

Sure. Going to remove all restrictions from netherrack, since it doesn't matter that much. I am actually thinking just have the binding and tool rod parts allowed for slime / paper / cactus. I can't completely unrestrict those materials though because it would have implications on the tool progression otherwise.

Is there a way to make crossbars for the daggers? Tried wood and flint, haven't found any bone, but seems a bit harsh as the only option... one other thing, how do we get lava to the smeltery without an iron bucket? Or should I be looking for dungeons and villages?

Is there a way to make crossbars for the daggers? Tried wood and flint, haven't found any bone, but seems a bit harsh as the only option... one other thing, how do we get lava to the smeltery without an iron bucket? Or should I be looking for dungeons and villages?

Ah, fail I completely forgot about the bucket issue. I would suggest using the Diamond Buckets+ mod. I've contacted the mod author in the hopes that he will allow me to incorporate one of his buckets into this mod.

Should oreNaturalAluminum also get set to HarvestLevel 0? I've not had a chance to actually play with the mod, but I'm having trouble trying to figure out how you'd build get a cast out of Aluminum Brass or Gold to build the bronze pick that can mine Aluminum and Gold.

Whoo! I discovered this early enough to have even the slightest impact!
This mod looks like a great mod to increase the difficulty of minecraft, but without causing the player to be unable to move a block without being mobbed by a cloud of who-knows-what. However, in some of the mods I like to play with, vanilla tools are necessary to craft certain items. *cough* buildcraft *cough* If you would be so kind, I would be quite grateful should you add in a config option related to allowing vanilla tools to be crafted, but causing them to be completely useless at mining anything. This way, I can still craft my quarries and go about ruining the environment with massive holes in the ground.
Thanks in advance,
Type1ninja

Whoo! I discovered this early enough to have even the slightest impact!
This mod looks like a great mod to increase the difficulty of minecraft, but without causing the player to be unable to move a block without being mobbed by a cloud of who-knows-what. However, in some of the mods I like to play with, vanilla tools are necessary to craft certain items. *cough* buildcraft *cough* If you would be so kind, I would be quite grateful should you add in a config option related to allowing vanilla tools to be crafted, but causing them to be completely useless at mining anything. This way, I can still craft my quarries and go about ruining the environment with massive holes in the ground.
Thanks in advance,
Type1ninja

Hey man, glad you like the mod. I've only disabled some wood/all stone vanilla tools - the others are still craftable. I believe buildcraft quarries require a diamond pickaxe right? You can still make them.

================================================================

New version: 1c

Added: Support for the rest of GregTech materials
Added: Clay bucket can hold molten metals
Removed: Stone hardness editing (can be found in my other mod)

Hey man, glad you like the mod. I've only disabled some wood/all stone vanilla tools - the others are still craftable. I believe buildcraft quarries require a diamond pickaxe right? You can still make them.

I know I can still make diamond pickaxes and such; my issue here is that I don't want to be able to use them. You see, I want the challenge of needing a smeltery for any type of metal tools at all, but I also need the vanilla tools for crafting. I want to run a server, and be able to build quarries, but not worry about everyone else making vanilla tools, which I dislike, after discovering TC. Sorry if I'm unclear here... In a nutshell, I want to make vanilla tools have no uses except crafting. That way, I can't "cheat" for the ability to get diamonds, and make a vanilla iron pickaxe, but I can still make anything that needs an iron pickaxe, such as the ender-thermic pump from the extra utilities mod.

EDIT: I just realized that you still need a smeltery to acquire diamonds, even with the ability to craft iron tools. silly me. All is well, ignore my noobish digression.

I know I can still make diamond pickaxes and such; my issue here is that I don't want to be able to use them. You see, I want the challenge of needing a smeltery for any type of metal tools at all, but I also need the vanilla tools for crafting. I want to run a server, and be able to build quarries, but not worry about everyone else making vanilla tools, which I dislike, after discovering TC. Sorry if I'm unclear here... In a nutshell, I want to make vanilla tools have no uses except crafting. That way, I can't "cheat" for the ability to get diamonds, and make a vanilla iron pickaxe, but I can still make anything that needs an iron pickaxe, such as the ender-thermic pump from the extra utilities mod.

EDIT: I just realized that you still need a smeltery to acquire diamonds, even with the ability to craft iron tools. silly me. All is well, ignore my noobish digression.